Last month, Greenpeace raised the bar for pro-active ocean exploration by an NGO to inform better ocean management by outfitting their own “green” vessel, the Esperanza, with two Deep Worker manned submersibles depth rated to 600m.

So, why would an environmental organization pilot a pair of manned submersibles through 2000 feet of water in the two largest submarine canyons in the world? Because it’s going to be a long time before federal agencies are willing to surrender the financing to secure a ship and submersibles. By that time the seafloor could be bottom trawled one hundred times over.